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SHOW US WHAT YOU’VE GOT: Today’s the big day — EPA’s now-infamous “listening tour” is pulling into the Washington, D.C., station to take the public’s attention on upcoming carbon limits for the nation’s existing fleet of power plants. The District is a little short on coal miners (who must have mixed up the dates when they came to the Capitol last week by the thousands), but the city is chock full of environmentalists and energy lawyers, and the event is likely to kick up some drama on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Half the people scheduled to speak are named “Ewing”: EPA is also hosting sessions today in Dallas and Seattle.

ALL THE FUN HAPPENS OUTSIDE — They see ACCCE rollin’… The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity will park a pro-coal billboard truck outside of EPA headquarters this morning. The billboard urges EPA to “Protect American Jobs” and will carry the message: “Tell EPA Coal = Jobs + Affordable Electricity.” Doing the whole tourist thing instead? Later today, it will travel around the National Mall and the Capitol.

March of limes: Environmental groups — including the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and Moms Clean Air Force — are holding a press conference at the National Press Club at 11:30, then marching to EPA HQ (about three blocks).

Pray the coal away: Leaders from the Christian, Jewish, Baha’i, Unitarian Universalist, and Muslim religions are gathering outside EPA at 8:45 to bless the rulemaking process , and many will testify throughout the day. Evangelical and other groups, citing moral issues, have called for strict regulations to combat climate change.

Ad watch: The National Mining Association has an ad in today’s Washington Post highlighting last week’s “Count on Coal” rally at the Capitol, hitting EPA for not planning listening sessions in coal-dependent communities. Check it out: http://politico.pro/1fkMDB2

PREVIEWING WARSAW: Activists are trying to keep expectations low for next week’s global climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, even as scientists issue increasingly dire alarms that time is running short to head off the most disastrous effects of global warming. The two-week talks are a key step toward reaching a new global pact by 2015 that would take effect five years later. Negotiators must try to reach an agreement that can win buy-in from a diverse range of countries, from big polluters like China to small island nations threatened by sea-level rise — and navigate the domestic politics of the United States, which never ratified the 1997 Kyoto accord. Andrew Restuccia has the story: http://politi.co/1gtpSxS

NEXT STOP, NOMINATION STATION: The White House put out more nominations last night. The rundown:

DOE: Ellen D. Williams will be nominated to direct DOE’s advanced research projects agency, known as ARPA-E. Williams has been the chief scientist at BP since 2010. She is on leave from the University of Maryland where she is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. In addition, Madelyn Creedon, currently the assistant secretary of Defense for global strategic affairs, will be put up to be principal deputy administrator for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Interior: Janice Schneider will be nominated to be the assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Interior Department. Schneider is currently a partner at Lantham & Watkins LLP, and previously was a counselor to the Deputy Secretary of the Interior. She spent several years as a trial attorney at the Justice Department in the environment and natural resources division and from 1993 to 1998 was an attorney-advisor with DOI.

State Department: A former EPA water policy adviser is getting a ticket to Riyadh. Joseph Westphal, currently under secretary of the Army, has been nominated as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. From 1997 to 1998, Westphal was a senior policy adviser in EPA's Office of Water; after that, he spent three years at the Pentagon heading up the Army's Civil Works division. The White House has also put forward Colleen Bradley Bell, a founding member of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Leadership Council, as ambassador to Hungary.

SHELL MOVES TO RESUME ARCTIC DRILLING: Via Fuel Fix: “Shell Oil Co. on Wednesday filed a broad drilling blueprint with federal regulators in Alaska, officially launching its bid to resume drilling in Arctic waters north of the state next summer. The company is at least temporarily scaling back its ambitions, with a 2014 exploration plan that focuses solely on its potentially more lucrative leases in the Chukchi Sea. It also has acreage in the neighboring Beaufort Sea. … But there are still many steps before Shell’s drill bits could begin burrowing into the Arctic seabed again, following a 2012 season that was marked by high-profile mishaps, including the grounding of its conical drilling unit, the Kulluk, on Dec. 31 last year.” FF: http://bit.ly/190rW84

RFA SAYS BIG OIL WOULD REAP WINDFALL IN BIOFUEL CUTS: The oil industry could score a $15 billion windfall if EPA cuts its ethanol volume requirements in 2014, renewable fuels industry officials said Wednesday. That gain for gasoline makers would come from both the number of gallons needed to replace the ethanol, as well projected increases in prices for gasoline based on that higher demand, according to a new analysis released by the Renewable Fuels Association. The claim is the latest salvo in the battle between the renewable fuels industry and the oil sector, which are both hoping to shape the EPA’s decision on the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that must be sold in the U.S. next year. Erica Martinson has the story: http://politico.pro/1iNIIN3

NPR-A LEASE SALE NETS $2.9 MILLION: The Bureau of Land Management yesterday pulled in almost $2.9 million during a 4.5 million acre lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The bids focused on 22 tracts totaling a little over 245,000 acres. ConocoPhillips offered the highest bid of the auction, totaling $200,103 for a tract, or $52.11 per acre. Half of the receipts go to the state of Alaska. Details from BLM: http://on.doi.gov/1asLTF1

** The energy industry supports 9.8 million American jobs. And every job created by the energy industry creates nearly three more indirect and induced jobs across the economy. This year alone, Chevron is investing $8.9 billion in U.S. energy projects. See more on how energy moves our economy forward. http://www.chevron.com/energyeconomy **

BETTER GET YOUR MAD HATTER-STYLE HAT WHILE YOU STILL CAN: The State Department yesterday officially signed on to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international treaty aimed at cutting mercury emissions. Coal-fired power plants (along with gold mining operations) are some of the biggest emitters of mercury, a neurotoxin that has been linked to developmental problems in fetuses and children and a variety of health issues in adults. EPA introduced a rule to cut down on power plant emissions of mercury and other substances in late 2011. Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Kerri-Ann Jones was supposed to sign the convention during an Oct. 10 conference in Japan (when it was signed by more than 90 other countries), but the signing was delayed due to the government shutdown.

WHITEHOUSE GOES AFTER WSJ OP-ED PAGE: The Wall Street Journal is a “paragon in journalism,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said on the Senate floor last night — “Until you turn to the editorial page. And then you step into a chasm of polluter sludge when the issue is harmful industrial pollutants.” Whitehouse, during one of his regular floor speeches on climate change, criticized the Journal’s conservative-leaning editorial page for decades of (at least initial) opposition to regulations on acid rain, ozone depletion and climate change. “If only the editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal would turn the page to the actual news their own paper reports on climate change,” Whitehouse said.

DVR ALERT: CNN is going nuclear. The cable news channel tonight at 9 p.m. will air the nuclear power documentary “Pandora’s Promise,” which explores the growing opinion that nuclear power should be a key tool embraced by environmentalists to tackle climate change. Trailer: http://youtu.be/bDw3ET3zqxk. The NRDC's Ralph Cavanagh and Tom Cochran wrote on CNN's website yesterday that "Pandora's Promise" is "propaganda" that plays down potential negatives of nuclear power: http://cnn.it/1dNntuB. And CNN posted a report on Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste yesterday (ME can’t believe Gregory Jaczko didn’t fall for the reporter’s question about whether he was appointed to the NRC with the sole mission of killing Yucca): http://cnn.it/HH5Vp7

QUICK HITS

— One of the last landowners still battling Keystone XL has won an "entry of default" against the Army Corps of Engineers and plans to ask the judge to invalidate the pipeline's permits. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1cFiSNZ

— John Buretta, who directed the Justice Department's Deepwater Horizon Task Force, has left DOJ. Main Justice: http://bit.ly/1hOaTOr

— The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is shaking up its mining office. Charleston Gazette: http://bit.ly/1b7k21g

— An Arkansas man has been indicted with eight counts over a series of attacks on a power grid in the state earlier this year. New York Times: http://nyti.ms/HATMlt